The invention relates generally to microfluidic pumps.
With a growing interest in the development of microfluidic systems over the past two decades, there have been numerous reports on the design and fabrication of microfluidic devices for use in a wide range of applications, such as chemical analysis, biological and chemical sensing, drug delivery, molecular separation such as Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) analysis, amplification, sequencing or synthesis of nucleic acids, environmental monitoring, and also in precision control systems for automotive, aerospace and machine tool industries. The precise delivery of specific fluid volumes is an important challenge for a wide variety of micro-/milli-scale fluidic device designs. Pumping of coolant liquids through closed-loop compact heat exchanger systems could be advantageous for cooling of microelectronics, while reducing total package weight and volume.
There is a need in the art for a microfluidic pump which has a simple design and can be made easily and cheaply, and yet can also provide continuous high performance pumping, working at relatively low voltages, and at low-cost.